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NEW YORK CITY (March 19, 2019) – VentureFuel, the company that connects established companies with emerging technologies and startups, announced today that Backstage Capital’s Amiah Sheppard was voted its annual Investor Visionary of the Year.
The Visionary of the Year is voted on by innovation peers at corporations, venture capital firms and startups to determine which Investor is the most innovative and best embraces new technologies to solve real business challenges. Thousands voted for the elite field of finalists that included investors from Alta Global Ventures, Bam Ventures, Comeback Capital, ICONNYC, Comcast Lift Labs, Courtside Ventures, FJ Labs, Mallory Ventures, RevTech Ventures, ThoughtWorks, Betaworks Ventures, Berman Strategic Advisors, Cornwall Trade and Investment, Sterling VC, Glasswing Ventures, and many more.
As the Director of Backstage LA, Backstage Capital’s Los Angeles accelerator program, Amiah Sheppard is an innovation curator. She spent the last 5 years examining the myriad ways founders harness, strategize, and utilize their unique socio-cultural location to get to their desired successful outcome. A graduate of Columbia University in the City of New York, she cultivated an academic and practical education leveraging sociology to explore gender and organizational leadership (specifically women/women of color’s leadership experiences), human resources, non-profit, social impact consulting, entrepreneurship, and business development. As a perpetual learner, Amiah has prioritized creating and implementing intersectional solutions previously at BRAVA Investments and Propper Daley. Currently, she is particularly excited about investing in beauty and wellness tech companies; and about the thriving LA tech ecosystem for underrepresented founders.
“Backstage Capital’s steadfast commitment to minimizing tech funding disparities by investing in high-potential underrepresented founders is furthered by its international accelerator programs. I am grateful to help lead investment and programing in effort to enable founders to be tapped into networks and resources that give them access to tangible and scalable business opportunities.” said Sheppard. “It is truly an honor to be recognized by VentureFuel and my peers as the Visionary of the Year.”
“Amiah is a dynamic visionary, that along with her colleagues at Backstage Capital, has identified the enormous opportunity in the fact that less than 10% of all venture capital deals go to women, People of Color, or LGBT founders. They have invested in over 100 companies led by underrepresented founders and are driving opportunity for their founders as well as results for their investors. Amiah is changing the landscape with her efforts and is helping all of us envision a better, more profitable and inclusive future. Our team is honored to work with her and thrilled to have her as the Investor Visionar of The Year.”
For more background on Jamie and all of the VentureFuel Visionaries finalists, visit: www.venturefuel.net/visionaries.